CrossCare 2.0: more than 50 organisations have signed the new cohesion and networking tool for elderly citizenship in the cross-border area
PORTOGRUARO – A cohesion and networking tool to ensure that the community takes care of elderly people with fragility or vulnerability and their families, with a focus on enhancing residual abilities. Community Pacts have been activated within the European project CrossCare 2.0, in Veneto in Portogruaro and Caorle, in Friuli Venezia Giulia in Sacile and Trieste, in Slovenia in Ljubljana and Grosuplje. At the moment 53 bodies and organisations have joined, 19 in Sacile, 16 in Trieste, 10 in Portogruaro, 2 in Caorle, 6 in Ljubljana and Grosuplje. New membership applications are already coming in, demonstrating that CrossCare 2.0 is a project aimed at forging new alliances with a view to active ageing and aimed at fostering shared care of the frail.
Veneto, Friuli Venezia Giulia and Slovenia are facing together the common challenge of the ageing population in the cross-border area, 15 partners united to strengthen the cooperation and governance of public-private decision-making processes between institutions and key operators of social and health services for the care of the elderly in the Programme Area. Launched last October, the project ‘CrossCare 2.0. Integrated and shared strategies for the capitalisation of the CrossCare Model’, is co-funded with over 529 thousand euros by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), one of the main financial instruments of the EU cohesion policy, and is included in the Interreg VI-A Italy-Slovenia Programme 2021-2027 with a total budget of over 662 thousand euros.
The press conference held on the morning of January 31st in the Council Chamber of Portogruaro's Town Hall was a valuable opportunity to meet and update on the state of the art. Speakers included the mayor Luigi Toffolo, the president of the Residenza Francescon Caterina Pinelli, the president of Cooperativa sociale Itaca Paolo Castagna, Anna Franco of U.O. Cooperazione Territoriale e Macrostrategie Europee della Regione del Veneto, who brought institutional greetings on behalf of the Interreg Italy-Slovenia Programme, the director of Servizi sociosanitari dell'Ulss 4 Veneto Orientale Simona Sforzin, and the regional councillor Fabiano Barbisan.
Focus on the three territories involved, with speeches by Daniele Dal Ben, director of Residenza Francescon, Azzurra Lanfranconi, project manager of Cooperativa sociale Itaca, Raffaella Barro, director of Don Moschetta in Caorle, Aldo Pahor, president of Asp Itis in Trieste, Miha Kranjc, director of DEOS, and Metka Velepec Šajn, director of DSO Grosuplje, for the Slovenian partners, and Teresa Griggio, for the Sinodé consultancy company.
THE PROJECT
Lasting 21 months, it will end on June 30th (thanks to an extension of a further three months), CrossCare 2.0 is a project aimed at capitalising on the Model developed with the previous CrossCare project, in order to build an adequate response to the phenomenon of an ageing population, a common challenge of the Programme Area that in the medium term will have a significant impact on health and social inclusion policies in Veneto, Friuli Venezia Giulia and Slovenia.
CROSS-BORDER SOCIAL INNOVATION
The innovative approach of the project envisaged the promotion of a dialogue aimed at the creation of cross-border Community Pacts at the local level, in order to support an integrated and customised care model for the elderly and their families, in synergy between public and private services, thanks to the collaboration with civil society and all the formal and informal realities active on the territory.
A project output that has already aroused the interest of Fondazione Terzjus, which has identified in CrossCare 2.0 and specifically in the path of community pacts a virtuous model of dialogue between association networks, voluntary work, public bodies and the third sector. Fondazione Terzjus, through the collection of interviews with the Italian project partners, will promote participatory meetings to promote community pacts as a successful example of experimentation of the potential of territories.
COMMUNITY PACTS
The Community Pacts signed are similar in form but tailor-made for each territory, as they are vivid expressions of the characteristics of each community. They are a useful tool to foster home care, guarantee formal/informal monitoring of the elderly, promote actions to foster active ageing and prevention.
In fact, the strengthening of the CrossCare® Model focuses on the realisation of Community Pacts, which represent the final outcome of a community animation process that takes the form of a network agreement, with the active involvement of all the realities of each territory, both public and private, that have manifested their willingness to make themselves available to the elderly population and to collaborate in order to guarantee the shared taking on of frailty. Declined in the territorial context, the Community Pacts intend to allow the continuous activation of proximity social networks, as well as the strengthening and formalisation of collaborations that are already in place.
A fundamental corollary of the agreement at local level is the drafting of guidelines for the implementation of Community Pacts, which have seen the definition of local, multidisciplinary and mixed public-private steering committees.
Preceded by a brief training session organised by the Sinodè company, the Pacts are intended to provide public administrations, the third sector and ordinary citizens with a series of tools for reflection and a legal framework within which the community can express its solidarity action in a network context.
PROJECT DEVELOPMENT IN PORTOGRUARO AND CAORLE
The main objective carried out in Portogruaro by the Residenza Francescon within CrossCare 2.0 is to significantly strengthen the collaboration between all the actors involved in the signing of the Community Pact at a local level, transforming Portogruaro into a true community friendly to the elderly person. The first concrete goal looking to the future will be the enhancement of the Centro Pertini, through an innovative project that aims to develop a social centre for the elderly of a polycentric nature. This initiative will make it possible to involve both the chief town and the hamlets, guaranteeing an inclusive and widespread approach throughout the territory, strengthening the role of the Centro Pertini as a reference point for the elderly community.
In Caorle, the municipal administration has observed with interest the development of the dialogue promoted in the area by the Azienda speciale Don Moschetta. From the training events carried out thanks to the project in recent months in favour of the citizenship, the network dimension emerged strongly, aimed at helping the elderly population with fragility or vulnerability, resulting in the signing of the Community Pact between Don Moschetta and Centro Sollievo - Associazione Il Faro.
THE COMMUNITY RESPONDS. The list of all signatories
Portogruaro (10): Comune di Portogruaro, Residenza Francescon, Ads Rete di Solidarietà, Anteas Venezia, Caritas, Croce Rossa, In Famiglia, Aps Pertini, San Vincenzo de Paoli e Università della Terza Età.
Trieste (14): Comune di Trieste, Asp itis, Oltre quella sedia – Consulta disabili, Aris, Comunità Sant’Egidio, Anteas, Federvol Fvg ets, Associazione Esperantista, Ugorà, Hangar Teatri/Teatro degli Sterpi, Museo della Bora, Alice Trieste ets, Caritas, Università di Trieste.
Sacile (19): Comune di Sacile, Servizio Sociale dei Comuni Livenza Cansiglio Cavallo, Cooperativa sociale Itaca, AsFO, Auser, Bocciofila Sacilese, Centro di ascolto La Vela, Anmic, Fondazione Alvise, Caritas foraniale Sacile, associazione Serenissima, Università della terza età e degli adulti Sacile e Alto Livenza, Associazione Ensemble Serenissima, associazione Piccolo Teatro Città di Sacile, associazione Circolo della Cultura Del Bello, Istituto Filarmonico Città di Sacile, associazione San Pietro Apostolo, Duomo di San Nicolò e SpiCGIL.
Caorle (2): Azienda speciale Don Moschetta e Centro Sollievo – Associazione Il Faro.
Slovenia (6): DEOS, celostna oskrba starostnikov, d.o.o., Dom starejših občanov Grosuplje, Občina Grosuplje, Zdravstveni dom Grosuplje, Zavod Aktivna starost so.p., Moj načrt, družba za zagotavljanje osebnih storitev, d.o.o.
THE PARTNERS
CrossCare 2.0 is led by Cooperativa sociale Itaca as lead partner and has a partnership of 15 entities and organisations. There are 6 first level partners: besides the lead partner Itaca, Aps ITIS, Ipab Residenza per Anziani Giuseppe Francescon, DEOS celostna oskrba starostnikov d.o.o., Dom starejših občanov DSO Grosuplje e Azienda speciale Don Moschetta.
Associated partners: Azienda sanitaria Friuli Occidentale, Azienda unità locale Socio Sanitaria 4 Veneto Orientale, Comune di Portogruaro, Comune di Sacile, Federsanità ANCI Friuli Venezia Giulia, Servizio Sociale dei Comuni Livenza Cansiglio Cavallo, Združenje koncesionarjev domov za starejše, Zavod Aktivna Starost so.p., Azienda sanitaria universitaria Giuliano Isontina.
